17 Months Old

December 10, 2015 (17 months)

Love those pouty lips! I'm going backwards this month: most recent first!

This week my dad picked up Sierra from daycare and brought her to my work so that she could come to one of my team's holiday party. The coaches kids were there and she eventually warmed up to playing with them. She has been a lot more clingy this month; meeting "new" people has proven to be a challenge. It's that time of development though. The whole softball team at once was a bit overwhelming for her. She also had to come into work with me one day because the daughter of our daycare provider was sick in the second half of the day. I thought it would be fun for her because we were doing agility drills and there were a lot of brightly colored cones and young women who all love kids there. She was clinging to me for dear life and giving everyone a scowl; essentially I was dead wrong. 

This weekend Auntie Lyn came by to give Sierra an early gift. She was SO happy to see Elsa and Anna on clothes. She knows their names. It's kinda crazy that she can say/recognize two Disney characters already.

 On one of the days at daycare they went downtown to the Christmas tree lighting and to meet the Clauses. I got there shortly before it was her turn to meet them. Sierra protested, as I expected she would. It was hard to take her out of the line since they had been waiting for 20 minutes already. So we went along with the experiment. She was better with Mrs.Claus than Santa.

No chance she was getting anywhere near him!

 When we returned from our Thanksgiving trip and Oso realized how much he missed Sierra; he even let her cuddle into him. I wouldn't say he's less fearful of her, but he certainly has been having more moments of playfulness and longer stints of letting her pet him. Then again we are trying to strictly enforce no yanking policies for tails and ears, and only GENTLE petting (instead of violently swinging her arms out of control at their faces). That has seemed to help as well.

 We went to Sonoma with my Dad, and had a great time. We ate at a bunch of great places, went for a hike, and we all got out on the bikes three times.

 The hotel we stayed at was awesome, and really comfortable. Sierra enjoyed activities such as:

 Jumping on the bed... FORGET about that monkey song because she has no fear of falling off.

 Posing on the lovely outdoor chairs in her Thanksgiving Day dress (courtesy of Grammy Anne).

 She also found out where the pool was rather quickly, and was always trying to get to it. We made it in twice, and Sierra was over the moon!

 Pop Pop Mickey came to town right before Thanksgiving and has been having a blast with his granddaughter. Sierra enjoys having him come to the house and even lets him babysit without putting up a fight.

 Earlier in the month we got out to Sly Park Reservoir to switch off mountain biking and hiking with Sierra. Once she saw the water though, there was no more hiking until we went to the water. She went in immediately, as I rightfully assumed (I took her socks and shoes off prior).

 The "Little People" still provide hours of entertainment for her, and we often color and water paint. Since we have had more rain we use the chalk pastels less now. She often likes to paint herself with the water color, so we have been limiting their use for now.

Her vocabulary has just taken off this month. She is combining multiple words all the time, and repeating words that Gus and I say nonstop. It's hard to say how many words she uses, but it is pretty amazing to see.

We have begun to transform our office into our second little girl's room. We sold our desk and office chair, and used the money to sign Sierra up for the toddlers' gymnastics class 1 morning a week for 2 months. It's pretty much an "open gym" for 30 minutes, but at least she will have the opportunity to play with other kids between 1-2 and get some energy out while we're in the rainy season. Baby number two is a HEALTHY baby girl! We found out the results from the Panorama Test and there are no chromosomal abnormalities, and our little 14 week old growing baby is a girl! Her name will be Eve Aurora Wick.

For me, this pregnancy has been a bit more challenging. I have less energy, I am showing MUCH earlier, and I am not nearly as motivated to get my cardio work in. I am less consistent with it too. Before the weather got rainy I was still biking about 4 times per week, and now that it's raining I am rowing on the erg (read boredom flash back from collegiate winter training) and running on the treadmill for short distances. Ahh, oh well. I have been consistently lifting 3x/week and just achieved a few PR's last week. Power Clean: 74 Kilos, Squat: 215 Lbs, Bench: 150 Lbs, Deadlift: 125 Kilos. Although PR's are nice, I don't think I will be retesting again. More of a maintenance phase, with adjustments as needed as I go. I am once again dealing with readjusting my body image, as I was last time around. I honestly just feel fat right now. 14 weeks pregnant I shouldn't really be that much bigger, but here I am nearly 6 pounds up from pre-preggo (ALREADY)! First trimester carb load did NOT do good things for me.

Anyhow, we're excited to be coming up on some vacation time soon, so the Wick family can take it easy, reconnect, and see friends and family. This was a big month, but there's a big month ahead of us too! Hope everyone else is doing well!

16 months (what a month)!?

November 11, 2014

Sierra's 16 months now and we sure made the most of it this month. At the beginning of the month she was weighed and measured at 28lbs and 35in (probably bigger now). She's a big kiddo! She had a bunch of shots too and was very unhappy, as to be expected (but did fairly well after given a sticker). We all got out on quite a few bike rides. We mostly went on road rides around town, but we also switched off mountain biking and hiking around with Sierra at a few different spots. I have also been getting in two road rides a week during my lunch at work and lifting 3 times a week. It's fair to say that I have been doing far less than I was during my first pregnancy.

We hung out at Auntie Lyn's place several times this month and Grammy came to visit a few times too. A very special day for them was on Halloween. Sierra spent the whole day with them. The weather reminded me of the Halloweens my siblings and I shared on the east coast. Rainy and  chilly with leaves scattered about in the shallow puddles. I was sad to have missed bringing her out to the days' events, but I was happy that she could at least spend it with family. We also had the opportunity to visit our good friends Chris and Julia in Roseville twice this month. We hung out and got caught up in each other's lives. It's nice to have some friends around that you've had for a long time.

I couldn't help myself, I had to get Sierra some more "Little People" because she loves to play pretend with them and bring them everywhere with her. She plays with them and colors everyday. We run around in the driveway a lot too. We try to make it down to the park at least once a week.

As you can see she has really advanced her skills with the chalk pastels. Another new habit is that she has now taken to nibbling on crayons and drawing on the floor with them... Got to keep an eye on that one.

We had a 3 day weekend in October and went out to Point Reyes National Seashore, Muir Woods, and Mount Tamalpais. A different hiking spot each day. We hit the beach once more before we left too; you have to be watching Sierra closely around the waves she runs straight for them.

So far this month has been pretty horrible in terms of morning sickness and fatigue, but it's starting to get better slightly. I got my first ultrasound and the baby is healthy and growing well. It looks like he/she will make their debut around June 11 (based on LMP) or June 13, 14, 15 based on the size (I am betting on a later date because of how late Sierra was). The doctor ordered a Panorama Test which is a more accurate and non-invasive way of screening for chromosomal abnormalities than any other test available, and it also will be telling us the gender of our little one within a few weeks. More exciting news to come next month, so stay tuned....